That said

Despite what I said in my post below, I’m always a bit shocked when I read comments that people make about low-wage workers, such as Dan in the comments section of this story.

(There is no reliable way to link to comments on Slate any longer. Another brilliant UI/UX “innovation.” The “share” button appears to allow it, but doesn’t actually function in any of the four browsers on two different OSes in which I tested it.)

So here’s a screenshot of one of his odious comments:

image

Not only is nearly everything in the comment casuistic or utterly fallacious, it is contemptible in that it presumes that social arrangements have to be this way.

They do not.

I’ve spent many years studying and learning about other economic arrangements throughout human history. Not that all of them were superior, but the market system as we think of it now is an anomaly. Pretending that society must be ordered just as it is now is completely ahistorical and is in no way supported by any evidence at all.

It is a convenient fantasy used to justify inequality and theft of labor from people like Jannette Navarro.

The universal basic income is the best solution to all this, by the way. As long as it’s not allowed to be hijacked by libertarians to destroy Medicare/Medicaid and Social Security.

And Dan is a putz scumbag.